Thanks, I will look that up. I knew that I planted my first seeds a little bit late, but I guess it was silly of me to try anyway while it's still so warm out. I'll probably wait until the Fall, then plant more radishes, lettuce, etc. I don't think there's much of anything that can make it through a Texas Summer. I just got over excited lol. Do you have any tips on an organic option for pesticide that what works well? I'd really like to be better prepared for the next planting season. Also, do you think it would be ok to start a compost now, even if it doesn't get used until August? Thanks for your help!

The OP is in the UK and lettuce can be grown pretty much year round here. I sow successionally throughout the summer. loveVeg - some tips. 1. Sow the next lot thinner. 2. When the seedlings show start thinning them out i.e. removing some. You can eat the thinnings. 3. It does not take long to take a few leaves from each plant for a salad. That's what I do at the start of the season when the plants aren't fully grown. 4. The ones you buy have been trimmed for sale so the outer leaves have been removed. All of a lettuce is perfectly edible. You just have to experiment to find out whether you like the outer leaves or not. Fussy eaters might just go for the hearts. Personally I eat every bit that isn't actually yellowed or bug eaten. 5. If the plants are 8 inches tall they are nearing maturity and will start to bolt soon i.e. they will put up a stem and start making flowers. You don't want this to happen but you can't stop it so you need to eat up the ones which show signs of the centre pushing up taller. 6. Now you are growing your own lettuce you will discover that it actually has flavour and is not just a bland, crunchy substrate for a dressing. In fact it doesn't even need to be crunchy to be good. I always grow a mixture of red, green, cos, looseleaf and heading types so the salad bowl contains a wide variety of shapes, colours and flavours. You can buy packets of mixed seed so you don't have to get lots of different types in quantity. Little Gem is my favourite lettuce but it isn't very big so imo you need to get eating. I also suggest you do a bit of reading so the next lot is better organised. You can sow more now and keep putting in small batch of seeds until September. Here is a link that might be useful: Growing lettuce

Red Giant or Giant Red Mustard. Here is a link that might be useful: Google image results

Put them in my salad and loved it. Thanks, you guys are great.